xanadian:Parrot fever is also supposed to be closely related to chlamydia, IIRC, and can seriously fark your shiat up.

I contracted Parrot Fever once; you're right, it was awful. I felt like there was fire in my mind and was higher in my walking. I was glowing in the dark; I give you warning. And that sweet city woman, she moved through the light, controlling my mind and my soul. When you reached out for me, yeah, the feeling was bright...

So here's what I want to know. If smallpox were eliminated from the world with the only samples being in the US and Russia, why exactly were the troops being vaccinated against smallpox before going to the middle east? We were told that it was to prevent against possible biological attack with smallpox while we were downrange. How would that have been possible if the only samples are in the US and Russia? Methinks someone somewhere is lying through their teeth.

/hated that vaccination, made me sick as a dog.//Never had the lymph nodes in my armpits swell like they did 3-4 days after that vaccination.

Dingleberry Dickwad:So here's what I want to know. If smallpox were eliminated from the world with the only samples being in the US and Russia, why exactly were the troops being vaccinated against smallpox before going to the middle east? We were told that it was to prevent against possible biological attack with smallpox while we were downrange. How would that have been possible if the only samples are in the US and Russia? Methinks someone somewhere is lying through their teeth.

/hated that vaccination, made me sick as a dog.//Never had the lymph nodes in my armpits swell like they did 3-4 days after that vaccination.

No, wait, I'm not. I wouldn't wish that on anyone. Fun times when the Doctor said, 'okay, we need to be aware that encephalitis and meningitis might happen. You could get pustules in your mouth, on your eyes, and other areas.' Extra fun was when covered head to toe was finding one in my junk, for real.

If you think you're immune, get the vaccine. If you're in your 50s, get vaccinated for shingles.

Dingleberry Dickwad:So here's what I want to know. If smallpox were eliminated from the world with the only samples being in the US and Russia, why exactly were the troops being vaccinated against smallpox before going to the middle east? We were told that it was to prevent against possible biological attack with smallpox while we were downrange. How would that have been possible if the only samples are in the US and Russia? Methinks someone somewhere is lying through their teeth.

/hated that vaccination, made me sick as a dog.//Never had the lymph nodes in my armpits swell like they did 3-4 days after that vaccination.

In all seriousness...part of the concern was that the Russians might not have been keeping as good a guard on their smallpox stocks or may have been telling porkie-pies back in the USSR era and that some of the Russian stock of smallpox could have gotten into the hands of Al Qaida.

(Long story short--Basically there has been some evidence that has come out (especially after the fall of the Iron Curtain) that the USSR was conducting bioweapons research even after it was supposed to have destroyed most of its stocks. Probably the best evidence of this was a sudden outbreak of a particularly virulent strain of anthrax in 1980 near one of the known USSR bioweapons facilities, and it's been suspected that the same parties worked with smallpox and other nasties...and the big concern is that (especially with the corruption in Russia and the <INSERT ETHNICITY HERE>-stans) some of the stocks could have been sold to the highest bidder before being destroyed. Same reason the US military gets anthrax shots, really.)

Great Porn Dragon:Dingleberry Dickwad: So here's what I want to know. If smallpox were eliminated from the world with the only samples being in the US and Russia, why exactly were the troops being vaccinated against smallpox before going to the middle east? We were told that it was to prevent against possible biological attack with smallpox while we were downrange. How would that have been possible if the only samples are in the US and Russia? Methinks someone somewhere is lying through their teeth.

/hated that vaccination, made me sick as a dog.//Never had the lymph nodes in my armpits swell like they did 3-4 days after that vaccination.

In all seriousness...part of the concern was that the Russians might not have been keeping as good a guard on their smallpox stocks or may have been telling porkie-pies back in the USSR era and that some of the Russian stock of smallpox could have gotten into the hands of Al Qaida.

(Long story short--Basically there has been some evidence that has come out (especially after the fall of the Iron Curtain) that the USSR was conducting bioweapons research even after it was supposed to have destroyed most of its stocks. Probably the best evidence of this was a sudden outbreak of a particularly virulent strain of anthrax in 1980 near one of the known USSR bioweapons facilities, and it's been suspected that the same parties worked with smallpox and other nasties...and the big concern is that (especially with the corruption in Russia and the <INSERT ETHNICITY HERE>-stans) some of the stocks could have been sold to the highest bidder before being destroyed. Same reason the US military gets anthrax shots, really.)

Also they did a lot of that research on an island in the Aral Sea, because it was easy to secure and they didn't have to worry about contamination. Now the Aral Sea has been pretty much drained and that island isn't an island anymore. Given Soviet attitudes toward hazardous waste you can go out there and dig up all kinds of nasty stuff they just dumped into the ground.

1. Vaccinate more people against the pox viruses to form firewalls.2. Promote food security in Africa to prevent people from eating animals that serve as reservoirs for diseases such as cow pox, monkey pox, ebola, HIV, and whatever is next, etc.3. Map the DNA of the Pox viruses and identify genes that could be problematic.4. Support travelling free clinics in rural Africa to go where ever possible (given wars, famines, etc.).5. Spend more money researching tropical diseases, because they aren't going to stay problems of the world's poor in a vastly more interconnected world, such as we get every five years or so.

I hope I was vaccinated as a child against small pox. It is one of the nastiest diseases going. I wonder if my Mother has any records or if I can procure them from local doctors and hospitals.

When I was a child, tuberculosis, polio and other horrible diseases were living memories. One of the guys who lived in my family's village had the stunted legs of the polio survivor and local doctors were still testing for TB in the 1970s because there were still cases among the very poor backwoods paupers who lived in tiny cabins or tar-paper shacks (so-called because they weren't finished with siding but only with tar-paper--a lot of people still build their houses as they get time and money because mortgages are impossible to get where there is no police, fire, or water service, in rural areas).

Thanks for the reminder about shingles. Some of my uncles have suffered from shingles and they are really painful and dibilitating. They are caused by the same virus as chickenpox, which hides away for decades and gets you as an adult.

My case of chickenpox was relatively mild but damn it hurts like Hades when your brother smashes you in a pustule carelessly. Worse than the time when my we were fishing for trout and he caught my finger with a cast and thought he had snagged his hook on a tree branch. My father's cousin from Maine couldn't understand it. "Why ain't that boy havin' fun?" he asked in his pronounced Northern Yankee accent. Why indeed!

Oh, I don't know. It's great fun to stand in ice water, get eaten by insects, and hooked like a trout and then whipped around like a tree branch. Especially if you love fishing as much as dental surgery. It was a lovely little stream with a tiny sylvan waterfall and I would have been happy to leave it alone. Film it and make it into a screen saver and I'd enjoy it more.

I am relatively tolerant of pain, which is a good thing because I am constantly in pain from one thing or another. I spend part of every day in agony just to keep in practice for serious problems. But some pains are ridiculous and to be avoided.

basemetal:I'm old, I bear the mark of the smallpox vaccination, which probably means diddly and squat.

I'm old too, so yes, I have the scar. I think it's the ONLY benefit of being old. OTOH, when the 'pox sweeps through humanity killing off 90% of those under 35, we oldsters will once again have full employment. Woot!

brantgoose:I hope I was vaccinated as a child against small pox. It is one of the nastiest diseases going. I wonder if my Mother has any records or if I can procure them from local doctors and hospitals.

If you were vaccinated you have a scar like this on one of your upper arms...

Stone Meadow:basemetal: I'm old, I bear the mark of the smallpox vaccination, which probably means diddly and squat.

I'm old too, so yes, I have the scar. I think it's the ONLY benefit of being old. OTOH, when the 'pox sweeps through humanity killing off 90% of those under 35, we oldsters will once again have full employment. Woot!

I wouldn't count your chickens on that one even if you were serious. Pretty much anyone in the military who went to the middle east in the last 10-12 years or so was vaccinated for small pox as well. Shiat sucked. Itched like a royal bastard, made me sick as hell, and that nasty bubbly sore seemed to take forever to go away, even with it covered up the entire time.

Dingleberry Dickwad:Stone Meadow: basemetal: I'm old, I bear the mark of the smallpox vaccination, which probably means diddly and squat.

I'm old too, so yes, I have the scar. I think it's the ONLY benefit of being old. OTOH, when the 'pox sweeps through humanity killing off 90% of those under 35, we oldsters will once again have full employment. Woot!

I wouldn't count your chickens on that one even if you were serious. Pretty much anyone in the military who went to the middle east in the last 10-12 years or so was vaccinated for small pox as well. Shiat sucked. Itched like a royal bastard, made me sick as hell, and that nasty bubbly sore seemed to take forever to go away, even with it covered up the entire time.

Serious? Shirley you jest...this is Fark. ;^)

You're correct, tho, so I should have written "90% of the unvaccinated under 35" crowd.

BTW, I saw a video a while back (Guns, Germs and Steel?) that said smallpox killed off something like 90% of the population of the Americas in the century after it was introduced in about the year 1500.

Stone Meadow:BTW, I saw a video a while back (Guns, Germs and Steel?) that said smallpox killed off something like 90% of the population of the Americas in the century after it was introduced in about the year 1500

smallpox was the original pox. all those poxes afterwards were just copycats.

FloydA:xanadian: Parrot fever is also supposed to be closely related to chlamydia, IIRC, and can seriously fark your shiat up.

I contracted Parrot Fever once; you're right, it was awful. I felt like there was fire in my mind and was higher in my walking. I was glowing in the dark; I give you warning. And that sweet city woman, she moved through the light, controlling my mind and my soul. When you reached out for me, yeah, the feeling was bright...

Oh wait, that wasn't parrot fever. That was night fever. Never mind.

You're lucky it wasn't Cat Scratch Fever.

[Author's Note: I was going to add some amusing quotes from the song, but I was unable to makes heads or tails or the lyrics so I gave up. My god, that is an awful song.]

talulahgosh:Stone Meadow:BTW, I saw a video a while back (Guns, Germs and Steel?) that said smallpox killed off something like 90% of the population of the Americas in the century after it was introduced in about the year 1500

smallpox was the original pox. all those poxes afterwards were just copycats.

Dingleberry Dickwad:Stone Meadow: basemetal: I'm old, I bear the mark of the smallpox vaccination, which probably means diddly and squat.

I'm old too, so yes, I have the scar. I think it's the ONLY benefit of being old. OTOH, when the 'pox sweeps through humanity killing off 90% of those under 35, we oldsters will once again have full employment. Woot!

I wouldn't count your chickens on that one even if you were serious. Pretty much anyone in the military who went to the middle east in the last 10-12 years or so was vaccinated for small pox as well. Shiat sucked. Itched like a royal bastard, made me sick as hell, and that nasty bubbly sore seemed to take forever to go away, even with it covered up the entire time.

I hear ya. They tried to vaccinate me for my deployment in 04-05. It didn't take. I was told it meant I might be immune already. So they gave me a second run. Stuck me with that fork a whole bunch of times. When that didn't take I was apparently good to go.

brantgoose:1. Vaccinate more people against the pox viruses to form firewalls.2. Promote food security in Africa to prevent people from eating animals that serve as reservoirs for diseases such as cow pox, monkey pox, ebola, HIV, and whatever is next, etc.3. Map the DNA of the Pox viruses and identify genes that could be problematic.4. Support travelling free clinics in rural Africa to go where ever possible (given wars, famines, etc.).5. Spend more money researching tropical diseases, because they aren't going to stay problems of the world's poor in a vastly more interconnected world, such as we get every five years or so.

1. Nuke the Congo from orbit. That's where all this crap comes from anyway.

spickus:Dingleberry Dickwad: Pretty much anyone in the military who went to the middle east in the last 10-12 years or so was vaccinated for small pox as well.

They gave them to us in the 80s too. Right on top of my first.

Let me guess, didn't have your shot records? Got all the immunizations in basic, then when prepping for Iraq I ended up getting all of them again because I lost my shot records before they started keeping them electronically.

Dingleberry Dickwad:I wouldn't count your chickens on that one even if you were serious. Pretty much anyone in the military who went to the middle east in the last 10-12 years or so was vaccinated for small pox as well. Shiat sucked. Itched like a royal bastard, made me sick as hell, and that nasty bubbly sore seemed to take forever to go away, even with it covered up the entire time

That was your mistake right there. The good way to deal with that is while it's still in the oozing sore stage to keep it uncovered. You want to speed up the drying out so that it gets to the scab stage as fast as possible. I heard this theory (and it worked) from a Gunnery Sergeant who was getting his 4th smallpox vaccination (once as a kid, once when he enlisted, once before desert storm 1 because the doc's lost his medical records, and a final time in 2005 before we went to Africa because the docs had lost his records a second time. That last time he asked the corpsman if he could mark out where he wanted the scab because he was thinking of using all of them in a tattoo.

He told us to just sit around the hotel with our shirts and band-aids off as much as we could and to only cover them up when we went down to Bourbon Street to play around in Mardi Gras.

Dingleberry Dickwad:spickus: Dingleberry Dickwad: Pretty much anyone in the military who went to the middle east in the last 10-12 years or so was vaccinated for small pox as well.

They gave them to us in the 80s too. Right on top of my first.

Let me guess, didn't have your shot records? Got all the immunizations in basic, then when prepping for Iraq I ended up getting all of them again because I lost my shot records before they started keeping them electronically.

We all got a smallpox vaccination because apparently it was much easier to vaccinate everyone with everything than to bother trying to sort it out.

Stone Meadow:brantgoose: I hope I was vaccinated as a child against small pox. It is one of the nastiest diseases going. I wonder if my Mother has any records or if I can procure them from local doctors and hospitals.

If you were vaccinated you have a scar like this on one of your upper arms...

[itg.content-e.eu image 755x482]

If you were vaccinated you'll distinctly remember being stabbed repeatedly with a fondue fork.

doyner:Stone Meadow: brantgoose: I hope I was vaccinated as a child against small pox. It is one of the nastiest diseases going. I wonder if my Mother has any records or if I can procure them from local doctors and hospitals.

If you were vaccinated you have a scar like this on one of your upper arms...

[itg.content-e.eu image 755x482]

If you were vaccinated you'll distinctly remember being stabbed repeatedly with a fondue fork.

When the vaccination was given back in the day it was given to young kids who may not remember it very well. Besides, they didn't stab you that many time, it was like 2-3 times. At least it was for us when we were doing our processing for Iraq.

Dingleberry Dickwad:When the vaccination was given back in the day it was given to young kids who may not remember it very well.

Yep. I got it at one of the many mass inoculations done at the primary school I attended back in the late 50's or early 60's. Don't recall that individual shot...they were all miserable. But an uncle was all crippled up by childhood polio so I sure as fark lined up for my shots.